Determination of Effective Factors on Self-care Behaviors in Women With Diabetes Referring to Mashhad Health Centers

Background and Objective: Considering the most important factor in the control of diabetes is self-care behaviors and since improving self- care behaviors is the first step to help patients for better control and management of their disease. Therefore this research was conducted with the title of “determination of effective factors on self-care behaviors in diabetic women referring to Mashhad health centers”. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 300 women with type 2 diabetes who referred to public health centers were selected in the city of Mashhad by multistage cluster method. Data gathering tools were a summary of self-care behaviors by Toobert and his colleagues. the data analysis was done by SPSS software version 21 and data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson, independent T-test, ANOVA and Spearman tests. Level of significance was considered 0.05 in all tests. In all tests, a significant level of 0.05 was considered. Results : The mean score of patient’s self-care was 42.72 ± 9.90 and their self-care status was moderate. The self-care score behavior showed a significant statistical relationship with level of education, high income and training of patients (p<0.05). Conclusion: According to the results of this research, the important factors, such as educational level, economic status and previous knowledge of the patient play a significant role in the realization of self-care behaviors. Therefore, in order to promote self-care behaviors of patients, first of all, health educators should identify the mentioned factors, then make a plan and educational interventions.